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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

Russia reopens enlarged cosmonauts museum

Russia on Sunday reopened its Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics after three years of renovation and expansion work. The Moscow museum, opened on the annual Cosmonauts Day, is four times as large as the previous facility.

Moscow mayor Yuri Luskhov said at the opening ceremonies that Russia now had a museum where people could grasp the "magnificence of space." There was nothing comparable to it anywhere else in the world.

April 12 is celebrated every year as Cosmonauts Day, marking the April 12, 1961 first-ever successful flight in space by a human, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth.

The 8,000-square-metre Russian space museum features some 3,500 exhibits focusing on Soviet and Russian space exploration and research. Among others, there is a full scale model of the Soviet-era space station Mir, which visitors can walk through.

The museum also includes a cinema and classrooms for visits by schoolchildren, as well as a shop selling space food items.

With a 360-ft.-high (110 m) steel flame swooping up from its roof, topped by a Jetsons-esque rocket, Moscow's Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics has opened again, after more than three years of expansion and renovation -- one small step in Russia's effort to claim a more prominent place on the world stage by highlighting its past glory in space exploration.

"We wanted to build the new museum bigger and better, but the first goal was to remind young people of our glorious history, history that is being forgotten," says Alexander Laveikin, a deputy director of the museum and one of the first cosmonauts to have lived aboard the Mir space station. Besides serving as a memorial to the past, the museum, which reopened in March, is also part of a government effort to get young Russians interested in science and technology. "If five or 10 years ago, everyone wanted to be in business, now they are interested in technology -- and our museum is playing a big part in that," says Laveikin. "After the financial crisis ends, they won't be interested in fast money anymore. Now we need to forget about business and oil and focus on rejuvenating our technology sector."

How about paying a visit to Russian Space exploration museum? If it seems like a good idea then come inside for it.

Henk Stroo

In September I go for the second time to Moscow, I was their in 1998 the first time. Has anyone of you been in the re-opened space museum in Moscow after April 2009. I know it was closed for 3 years.

My question: What does the space shop have for sale and how are the prices? I have only time for this museum and not for Star City this time.

Editor's note: Threads merged.

kucharek

I had been at the museum in April 2006 before it was closed and had again been there a week ago. In 2006, the surroundings and the museum itself was a sad look. Now it is really a place to go. The park is very nice, the monument de-vandalized and the much larger exhibition space and the modern presentation is worth a visit.

I mainly stayed in St. Petersburg where I found the pretty unknown "Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Technology", which is right next to the Peter-Paul-Fortress. In the 1930s it was a gasdynamic laboratory and the exhibits are especially interesting if you are in rocket engines. In a few days I may have some pictures and videos online, I'll then add a link there.

kucharek

A crude video I took at the museum in St. Petersburg:

gliderpilotuk

Thanks for that. I was there about 3 years ago and found it very interesting. I believe Korolev worked there for a while. Hope you made it to the Army museum nearby which has an amazing collection of military vehicles. One thing's for sure: there's no shortage of things to do in this amazing city.

kucharek

We just walked by the Army museum. We had just one week in Russia. Five full days for Petersburg and one day we spent in Moscow. We saw a lot, but we missed a lot more. Plenty of reasons to go again there some day.

kucharek

Here a photo I took three weeks ago in the park right next to the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow.

They have several of these pillars with significant dates in Russian spaceflight history.

I've looked at the photo several times with an uneasy feeling until it just now made "click!".

Leonov's ship is incorrectly named "Восток-2" (Vostok 2), that was German Titov's flight. Leonov's was "Восход-2" (Voskhod 2).

Leonov will be here in Germany tomorrow and some friend of mine will meet him - if Leonov isn't going to cancel the visit because of Popovitch's funeral of which I have no date - and I just sent him mail about this so maybe he has some interesting subject to talk about with Leonov.

spaceman

Does the Memorial Museum of Сosmonautics in Moscow have a store online or offline? Do we have any Moscovite collectSPACErs? Thank you.

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Neil DC

This is the best Russian public space museum, well worth visiting if in Moscow. I visited it many years before the revamp. Its director then, was the late Cosmonaut Mikhail Lisun. Now it is former Cosmonaut Alexander Laveikin. I was lucky enough to attend the reopening of it about 3 years ago. There were many speeches including one from the mayor and a big group of veteran cosmonauts in attendance plus designer Boris Chertok. The day ended with a dinner for all the special guests.

The museum has trebled in size and has a large collection of flown spacecraft and models. Most aspects of Russian manned spaceflight are included. Also a mock up of Tsiolkovsky's study.

The museum shop was pretty good, though the day I visited it there were loads of school children, and it took ages to serve them all and get to me. Just as I finished buying souvenirs the lady shut it for lunch. The museum is usually closed on a Monday. Nearest metro station is VDNKh. I doubt it has any online possibility to sell things. Well not yet.

DougS

Do they have one of the LK lunar landers and/or Soyuz LOK on display?

Neil DC

I looked through my library and found the old and new versions of the museum's glossy brochure. The museum has a small scale model of the Russian manned lunar lander and a 15 foot scale model of the N1 launcher. It is also home to Soyuz 37 and Soyuz TM-7. The only real hardware of the lunar lander I have ever seen is in the basement of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) as I recall.

Robert Pearlman

According to Russian news reports, Alexander Lazutkin has been fired as director of the Museum of Cosmonautics.

The details behind the former cosmonaut's firing are not clear, but may have to do with disagreements between the museum's staff and its management, including how the museum's funds were being spent and "damage to museum collections" (per an automated translation).

According to the reports, Natalia Artyukhina of the Moscow Planetarium may take Lazutkin's place at the Cosmonautics Museum.